BYU basketball: Cougars fall at home

PROVO — As the buzzer sounded, Jimmer Fredette's 3-pointer settled in the bottom of the net and the Marriott Center crowd went wild.

Unfortunately for BYU, that was only the end of the first half. At the time, the Cougars enjoyed a 13-point lead and it appeared they were on their way to another Mountain West Conference victory at home.

But visiting UNLV clamped down defensively in the second half — and ended BYU's 25-game homecourt winning streak against MWC opponents — with a 76-70 victory.

Not only did the Cougars squander a 13-point halftime lead, but they also missed 16 of their first 17 shots from the field in what was their worst half of basketball at the Marriott Center in years. The Runnin' Rebels outscored BYU in the second half, 46-27.

"We had all of the momentum going into halftime. They came out playing great defense and we came out stagnant. You have to give (UNLV) credit," Fredette said. "They did a good job getting us out of our rhythm. We panicked at the end."

BYU dropped to 14-4 overall and 2-2 in MWC play while UNLV, which lost on the road to lowly Colorado State one week earlier, improved to 15-4 and 3-2.

Rebel guard Wink Adams poured in a game-high 22 points against the Cougars, hitting shots from all over the court.

"He made a lot of big plays," said BYU coach Dave Rose. "He's a good player."

Jonathan Tavernari finished with a team-high 21 points for the Cougars, but was just 7-for-22 from the field and 3-for-10 from behind the arc. Lee Cummard was held scoreless in the second half and ended up with 10 points. As a team, the Cougars hit only 7 of 28 attempts from the floor in the final 20 minutes.

"We got off to a pretty good start," Rose said. "(UNLV) did a much bettter job of shutting down things that were available to us in the first half."

UNLV's pressure defense simply disrupted and suffocated the BYU offense in the second half.

"We started to hurry and we were rushed. We didn't play the pace we're used to playing," Rose said. "We didn't shoot the ball with a lot of confidence in the second half."

The Rebels scored the first eight points after halftime, including a 3-pointer by Riverton native Joe Darger, and outscored the Cougars 23-5 over the first 11 minutes of the second half.